Hi all, I rescued a ball about four months ago. The previous owner had no hiding place for the snake, and no temp or humidity gauges. The snake was "constantly shedding", it actually had 3 or 4 sheds worth of skin on the top of his body. (Horrible!) After getting this five year old, four foot snake home, I bathed off all the old skin. (Beautiful snake!) In the correct environment, it had a full, one-piece shed a couple of weeks later.
I recently went out of town for a week and had my nephew watching my apartment. He was instructed on how to clean and change the water bowl, and was told to not even touch the snake. Upon my return, I found out that not only had he touched the snake, but handled it often, and even took it out in 37 degree weather! I was pretty upset about this revelation. Now, a week and a half later, the snake has shed (mostly complete), had a very healthy bowel movement, and appears totally normal, except for the red belly. I have read that bp’s can sometimes show a pink tinge to their belly just before shedding, but this is directly after a shed.
Does anyone have any ideas, or seen this before? I do not know the sex of the snake; I was told it is a male by the previous owner, but we’ve already established that he did not know what he was doing. The snake appears healthy in all other respects.
Many thanks in advance.
Philthy in Cali

Mine just shed last 2 weeks ago (all in one piece...yipppeee!!) and his belly was pinkish/reddish for a several days after his shed. This is his 3rd shed with me and he always does the same thing. For him it’s normal, I think the blood flow is slowly going back to normal in the new skin so that’s why you are seeing the pinkish tint.

Well first kuddos for the rescue, glad to see the BP is getting another chance.

A BP will have a pinkish tint to it’s belly prior to a shed so you are correct about that, now as far as a red tint to it it could be one or two things of course no one can make a diagnostic online so it would be hard to tell.

1# Thermal burn so the question is do you control your temps?
2# Beginning of scale rot which appear with a reddish, brownish tone and is due to damp environment or filthy environments.

But listen to the breathing. If it makes any noise when it breaths out then that definitely bad. They do get pinkish bellies before shedding and such, however, not that long ago my red tail boa would make loud hissing noises everytime she would breath out and had a bright red belly. When I took her to the vet, she had bacteria in her blood or whatever, so she was on antibiotics for about ten days. Then she got it back again, where she was on it for twenty days from the same exact symptoms as before and she’s been better since then. Just because the kid had the snake outside. I have all my snakes in a heated basement, (my room actually) but I have an evil stepmom that was turning off all the snakes heat and the room’s heat. (don’t ask me why...but she’s a big pain in the @ss..but since then my dad had it worked out so she doesn’t do that anymore)

It stunk too...she was going to be bred this year, but now I have to wait until next year.

Well...anyways...just watch her breathing and make sure she’s alright.

Thank you all for the quick replies. I do not have a thermostat to regulate the temp, I have an UTH, hot and cold side hides, temp and humidity gauges. The substrate I use is... I believe it is a peat moss and coconut husk mix. The snake moves between the two hides as needed.
I am not too html savvy, and I cannot figure out how to put my photos here. But I put them on my "my space" page /philthylittlemonkey under photos, album snakes. The red marks on the belly are hard to see in the photos. They run side to side across the belly, over the last 10 - 12 inches of the body. The snake appears to be laying in the water bowl more often than normal. Almost complete shed and bowel movement on 2/26 or 2/27. Fed on 3/2. I hear no breathing sounds, no rasping. Seems healthy in all other respects.

So, let me see if I have this straight.
1) the digital thermometer/hygrometer will give me more accurate readings than the dial ones I am using, and
2) the thermostat goes between the outlet and the UTH to regulate the heat. The switch dimmer you linked is a temporary fix to a better digital thermostat, yes?